Instead of planning for a 3.0 release, GNOME is opting for a gradual, piece by piece updating that will culminate in a 2.30 release. The change in version numbers is significant: It indicates that, unlike with the KDE 4 series, there will be no major break with past releases. This philosophy was obvious long before it became official last summer, and has the obvious advantage of not alienating users.

In my opinion, despite Gnome's incremental approach, they are still highly successive in alienating their users.

I found this article on Wikipedia but it doesn't say much except "A kernel debugger is a debugger present in some kernels to ease debugging and kernel development by the kernel developers". Can someone whip out a cluebat please?

turboflux writes: According to executive producer David Eick, Battlestar Galactica is still an open-ended adventure and it will not be ending after the 4th season as previously reported. Evidently Edward James Olmos jumped the gun on confirming the show would be ending while attending the Saturn Awards this month. Eick goes on to say that the fourth season would actually be 22 episodes (2 more than prior seasons) rather than the reported 13 episode order.

AnswerIs42 writes: NASA World Wind Java which debut at JavaOne this week and was demoed in a lab yesterday is now officially released as a Early Access release 0.2.0 SDK, this is NOT a full blown application but an API that can be used in other applications. There are demos in the SDK zip file and there is a link for a WWJava demo that is launched from the web page. For more information you can check the World Wind Central wiki page for WWJava, and the forums. A video of the live presentation opening day of JavaOne can be found here and these twoblogs have multiple posts on the WWJava release.

An anonymous reader writes: An editor from Wired writes on his blog that Wikipedia sucks for science stories — not because they are inaccurate, but because of what he calls the "tragedy of the uncommon": Too many experts writing about subjects in ways that no non-expert can understand. Would this be the dumbing-down of Wikipedia — or would it be a better resource for everyone?

If you read news magazines and newspapers, and also exercise, you can combine them to gain at least an hour in your day. The secret is to replace current-events reading with podcasts, and listen while you're walking or jogging or lifting weights. Chances are, the publications you read have podcast versions. Also, try BBC programs, major TV and radio news channels offerings, as well as Slate and other online zines. By switching to podcasts, you'll save money, help the environment, and cut time spent reading (because you can listen while you're doing other things).

I've been listening to entire courses for more than a year now (thanks, Teaching Company!), plus all kinds of podcasts and even text-to-speech'ed emails. It makes even jogging almost bearable. How do you optimize your time?

w1z4rd writes: "The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), often regarded as the cornerstone of the United States' homeland security, has lost a hard drive containing information of over 100,000 people.

The hard drive contained data from personnel who were employed by TSA as far back as 2002. The administration has teamed up with the FBI to recover the data."

1sockchuck writes: "Most data centers have an Emergency Power Off (EPO) button that will shut off power to the entire data center floor. Designed for fire prevention, the EPO (often a red button) has also triggered many accidental outages when vendors or cleaning crews have pressed it by accident. On April 15, the EPO figured in an apparent act of sabotage that crashed the data center that controls California's electrical grid. A disgruntled sysadmin was later charged in the incident. At the recent Data Center World conference, a session focused on ways to configure and manage the EPO button to reduce the risk of an accident or sabotage. "People can get killed and lives ruined by data center failures today," said data center designer Richard Sawyer. "The EPO represents a single point of failure. Make it accessible, but don't make it easy.""

SuperG writes: It seems like every mobile phone out there has a camera on it these days. The only ones without cameras are low-end models with poor battery life, poor reception, and minimal features. And low-end means the cool factor is nonexistent as well. I often visit facilities where phones with cameras are not allowed, so I end up being incommunicado with my current camera phone.
Is there a good (in terms of battery life, call quality, build quality, and style points) phone without a camera out there in the US market?

thefickler writes: A 12-member task force, consisting of top lawyers, doctors and scientists, has been set up by the South Korean Commerce Ministry to develop a code of ethics for robots by the end of the year, according to TECH.BLORGE.com.

"We expect the day will soon come when intellectual robots can act upon their own decisions. So we are presenting this as an ethical guideline on the role and ability of robots," said South Korea's Commerce Ministry.

"The plan will create a massive national identification system without adequate privacy and security safeguards. It will also make it more difficult for people to get driver's licenses. And it will make it too easy for identity thieves, stalkers, and corrupt government officials to get access to such personal information as a home address, age, and Social Security number."

Slashdotters should offer their perspective. REAL ID was approved without Congressional Hearings, and this is the last 24 hours for the public to comment on this proposal!"